Commune | Daily

The Mastaba, a proposed project for Abu Dhabi, was conceived by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1977. A mastaba, meaning house for eternity, was a type of ancient Egyptian tomb usually constructed out of mud brick or stone. Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s colossal mastaba will be made from 410,000 multi colored barrels to form a mosaic of bright, sparkling colors, echoing Islamic architecture. The Mastaba will be the largest sculpture in the world and Christo and Jean-Claude’s only permanent large scale work; standing in the desert just south of the city of Abu Dhabi at a towering 492 feet high, 11 feet taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza.

check out more images and projects by Christo and Jeanne-Claude at www.christojeanneclaude.net a great site designed by our friends NoFavorite in New York.

We are going to check out the Calder opening at L&M Arts in Venice this Friday 6 - 8pm..you should too.

Inspired by Blum & Po’s recent show: Requiem for the Sun, we decided to do a little research into modern art movements in Japan.  Somewhere between Kabuki Theatre, Jackson Pollock, and an early Paul Mcarthy performance exists The Gutai (“concrete”) Movement: An 1950’s ab-ex movement focused on the expression of materials.

“Gutai art does not change the material: it brings it to life. Gutai art does not falsify the material. In Gutai art the human spirit and the material reach out their hands to each other, even though they are otherwise opposed to each other. The material is not absorbed by the spirit. The spirit does not force the material into submission. If one leaves the material as it is, presenting it just as material, then it starts to tell us something and speaks with a mighty voice.”

Stage Director, choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video artist, sound/lighting designer, and needles to say genuis. 

Cuban artist, Carlos Garaicoa explores the parallel between the architectural/political state of present day Cuba and the imaginary island described in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia.